AMD Radeon RX 460 unlockable to full 1024 Stream Processors

There are two confirmed models to be unlockable: ASUS RX 460 STRIX 04G and Sapphire RX 460 NITRO 4G. Der8auer (the author of the guide), confirmed that 5 out of 5 ASUS cards were unlockable. Only one Sapphire card was tested by the author, but I’m glad to report that my Sapphire NITRO was also unlockable and the process was extremely easy.

However you must understand that this is process is still very risky, especially when you are not familiar with BIOS flashing (in case something goes wrong). It’s also worth noting that most RX 460 cards only have one BIOS, which makes recovery process much more complicated. For such reason, we advise you not to flash new BIOS unless you are aware of the risk.

So what is the benefit of flashing? You get the full Baffin chip with 1024 Stream Processors and 64 Texture Mapping Units. Such configuration is only available with Radeon Pro 460 or Radeon Pro WX 4100.

Here’s GPU-Z reading before and after flashing:

Before I get into actual performance gain, you must also know that unlocked RX 460 will not work with the latest Crimson ReLive, as it introduced BIOS signature check, which makes it extremely difficult to use modified cards with those drivers (you can read about a possible solution at TechPowerUP).

And here’s how it compares to RX 460 @ 896SP and GTX 1050 series. We are observing the improvement in performance. It is probably slightly less than we expected, but the gain is definitely there so our unlocking was not artificial.